When is my coop safe to use?

[Ayla_noemi]

Hello I have been using this site for over a year when I have questions but this is my first post. Recently we hatched our own mixed breed chicks and after a month and a half we moved them from our brooder to a coop. This is not our first hatch but it is our first problem. Now we had a day of very heavy rain a little over a week ago and our chicks chose to pile up under the rain instead of going into the shelter provided which had heat lamps. The weather was not too cold since this is Florida and they were fully feathered but they did get drenched. We moved them into the shelter on a few occasions but they kept returning to the same spot. Now a few days ago we noticed blood tinged watery feces in that area. The smell that we associate with E. Coli was obvious( my husband is a retired Army medic and I am a retired Army nurse). The chicks had begun to pick at each other’s feathers and were looking and acting sick ( like necks drawn in, eyes closed, not really moving or making noise). One morning we found 10 dead and decided to cull them all in order to avoid any of our other animals getting sick. After culling them we burned the remains, the bedding and feed. We also removed all organic matter and blow torched the entire coop. After a few minutes we used a garden sprayer with 3/4 water and 1/4 a mixture of bleach and vinegar. We drenched all surfaces and equipment used and scrubbed them down with a brush before drenching again. After about 10 minutes we rinsed the entire coop off with water. So my question is when is this coop safe to use again? We intend to move our adult Bourbon Red turkeys into this coop since it is one of our largest and our turkeys have begun to lay eggs. We do not use medicated feed since we eat our animals and eggs( we just feel safe this way). Sorry for the long post I just wanted to make sure I included as much information as possible.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Now a few days ago we noticed blood tinged watery feces in that area.

Bloody poop sounds like a Coccidiosis outbreak. You may want read up on that.
Coccidia is in the soil, poop, etc. rainy/wet environments are a breeding ground and oocysts can flourish. Young chicks can become overloaded and die. Most of the time, Coccidiosis can be brought under control with a coccidiostat like Corid (amprolium).

I've found that chicks have to be placed where you want them to be. It can take a while for them to learn "this is home", if not, they will find a place and huddle there for the night. If they were still of the age that they needed heat lamps, then it's best to gather them up and put them in the coop.

No one can say whether it's absolutely safe to place birds back on the ground and housing that you treated. Try it and see how it goes.

If you have any more that die from similar symptoms, then send a body to your state diagnostic lab for testing.

 

[Ayla_noemi]

Thank you I’ll do some reading today.

 

[Kiki]

X2...sounds like Coccidiosis is what killed them.

eta...I would say the coop is safe.
You will never get rid of the Coccidia in the ground so be sure to get some Corid before you get more chicks.

 

[naf_appaz]

Usually if they want or need to be warm they will find it and adjust how far from heat source they need to be comfortable. Is it possible that the heat lamp was to close to them within the shelter and they could not get far away enough within the shelter? I recently put some new brooder babies 6 weeks old out in central Mississippi so far they seem fine I have a heat lamp in there just in case it turns cold but it is not within a confined shelter there is plenty of room for them to adjust how close they want to be to it...Just a thought, sorry for you loss!

 

[Kiki]

The wetness and the added heat are perfect for breeding Coccidia too.

 

[Ayla_noemi]

Usually if they want or need to be warm they will find it and adjust how far from heat source they need to be comfortable. Is it possible that the heat lamp was to close to them within the shelter and they could not get far away enough within the shelter? I recently put some new brooder babies 6 weeks old out in central Mississippi so far they seem fine I have a heat lamp in there just in case it turns cold but it is not within a confined shelter there is plenty of room for them to adjust how close they want to be to it...Just a thought, sorry for you loss!

You know that might be the case but the coop is 16x16 and they ran to the opposite corner which had me puzzled because it was the open side where they were more exposed to the elements. I know we have a fox around here so I was thinking maybe they just felt safer in that corner. It was my first obvios sign of disease we worm them twice a year but recently I decided we needed to switch products because nobody was recomending what we were using which was Wazine. Now we were planing on alternating between albendazole, fenbendazole and Invermectin. I might have overdone things but I just felt better doing as much posible to protect all my other animals and birds.